As a boy, I was never a big fan of fiction. I was a good reader, but my interests were always in the sciences and how things work. I still enjoy those subjects, and no one in this modern world can deny their importance. However, I realize now that I was ignoring broad areas of human life like poetry and passion. It’s like traveling everywhere only by the interstate. Sometimes, you need to get off the straight, multi-laned highway to experience fully a locale and a people.
At twelve years old, I was changed by a book – The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. In that story, a group of children cross from our world to another via a magical wardrobe. Amazingly, the book awakened in me a hunger for literature and story. The book captured for me the whimsy of fairy tales, and only later, I came to see the Christian allegory. A world filled with beauty is perverted, and the rightful king must die to save it. Although I grew up in the church, I loved the lion, Aslan, before I loved Jesus. In a way, C.S. Lewis prepared me finally to hear the gospel as good news. For that, I will always be grateful.
In the land of Narnia there is a stone table on which is written the demands of justice. That table has been there longer than anyone can remember. The witch reads the words on that table in a simple, mechanistic way. She uses them to exact revenge on her enemies. When the witch demands justice against a traitor, the lion pays the cost. Aslan explains…
“…though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge only goes back to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards.”
Apparently the world is more complicated than the witch realizes. Here in a few sentences of a children’s book, Lewis addresses the difficult meaning of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and his resurrection. Christ has risen! He is risen indeed.
Over the years, the children of our congregation have explored the broad themes of God’s grace and love through games, crafts and songs at our annual Vacation Bible School. This year we will also use the story of Narnia in order to learn the greatest story ever told. We invite you and your children to journey with us through the wardrobe on the mornings of June 20 through 24. For registration, please go to our website at www.ardmorepres.org.
Grace and Peace,
James
